Faithful Little Maid, Thursday

Hello friends, welcome to the SeenPod for Kids.

Thank you for joining me today as we spend time with our friend Jesus.

Spending time with Jesus is the best way to start your day.

Let's begin our time together praising Him.

I love the last verse of this song, talking about heaven.

God has a crown waiting for us.

There are bright mansions there and soon very soon we will get to go home and be home with the Lord.

I'm looking forward to that day. How about you?

Let mercy is trodden forever I am redeemed redeemed redeemed by the blood of the lamb redeemed redeemed redeemed is trodden forever I am.

I know there's a crown that is waiting in yonder bright mansion for me and soon with a sense made perfect at home with the Lord I shall be redeemed redeemed redeemed by the blood of the lamb redeemed redeemed is trodden forever I am.

Welcome to hide his word a special program where we take a few minutes to hide God's word in our hearts. Let's go ahead and get started.

Let's practice Psalm 23 verse 6. This is our new and last verse that we are memorizing this quarter.

The rest of the quarter we're just going to review all the verses that we've been learning and memorizing.

So let's say this again surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Okay, so let's say that say it with me will go nice and slow surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord. How long forever? Yes. Let's start with verse 5. You prepare a table before me. Let's review verse 5 and verse 6. We'll put those two together.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Great job. Let's continue practicing this throughout the day.

If you want, go to our website starting with Jesus.com. Under the resource tab, there's Katie's corner. You can click that and then if you scroll down, there's a button that says Psalm 23.

And that's a PDF download that you can save to your phone. You can take a screenshot of it. You can print it out. You can laminate it. You can put it on your fridge. You can use it at the breakfast table to practice. Use it at worship. Put it with your Bible.

You can use that paper to be able to help practice these verses so that you are hiding God's word in your heart.

Has it this been an exciting week? This continuing story about Captain Naaman and how he ended up being healed of leprosy, right?

Well, we left in last time where he was on his way back to Elisha's house to tell him, thank you. We're going to find out what happened right after that. But first let's pray.

Lord, be with us and send your Holy Spirit to be in our hearts as we read this story as we learn. Help us to give you the credit to give you the glory so that when people see Jesus in us, we can tell them about Jesus.

And they won't think that it's us in Jesus' name. Amen.

Captain Naaman went back to Elisha's house and this time Elisha himself went out to talk to him. Look at 2 Kings, chapter 5, verse 15.

I have my Bible open right here in front of me. 2 Kings, chapter 5, and in verse 15, 2 Kings, chapter 5, verse 15.

Sometimes I get confused between first Kings and second Kings because there's just one number in front of it, first Kings or second Kings.

We're in second Kings today, chapter 5, verse 15. Let's see what that says.

And he returned to the man of God. He and all his aides and came and stood before him. And he said, indeed, now I know that there was no God in all the earth except in Israel.

Now before, please take a gift from your servant.

Isn't it wonderful that Captain Naaman tells him that there is no other God in all the earth except in Israel?

Yeah, what a beautiful, beautiful testimony that Naaman gave that showed his faith, his new faith in God.

He also offered his gifts. But Elisha refused them. There was something important that he needed to understand.

His healing had come from God, not from Elisha. And nothing must happen to make Captain Naaman or even his servants think differently.

Naaman, he was like, no, please, please take it, take it. But Elisha refused. Very nicely, of course. Look at verse 16.

But he said, as the old lives, before whom I stand, I will receive nothing. And the earth can not take it, but he refused.

Captain Naaman then asked Elisha for something. And this was kind of surprising to me. Here you have this captain who, just moments before, had been a heathen, he didn't believe in God, he didn't know God. In fact, he was an enemy of Israel.

And now all of a sudden, he has a very strange request. What was it? Look at verse 17.

So Naaman said, then if not, please let your servants be given two mule loads of oath. For your servant will no longer offer either bones offering or sacrifice to other gods, but to the Lord.

Two mule loads of dirt. What? Mule loads of dirt. Sometimes when we are working in the garden, we have to buy extra dirt or extra compost or different things that you can add to the soil to make it good.

And so we have a big truck and we have them scoop it up and give us a load of dirt. And we have to come and shovel it out and put it back. Oh, it's a lot of work.

Well, captain Naaman wants two mule loads of dirt. Why? So that he can have a place to offer sacrifices to the Lord in his heathen country.

He was going to go and put the dirt down, maybe make like a little garden, like a prayer garden or something so that he could go there and worship the God of Israel right there in his country, maybe even in his own backyard.

He wanted to be able to have a special place to go and to think and to pray. And then another thought came to captain Naaman's mind. He remembered, you know what?

The king of Syria. He's a heathen and I have to help him with certain things. I have to help him pray to his idol and the king leans on my arm when he goes to pray. That's one of my jobs.

And so he asked Elisha, he said, would God understand that in his heart, he himself wasn't praying to the idol, even though he was kneeling right there with the king.

Look at verse 18 and 19. How did Elisha respond?

Yet in this thing, may the Lord pardon your servant when my master goes into the temple of women to worship fair and he leans on my hand and I bow down in the temple of Raman.

When I bow down into the temple of Raman, may the Lord please pardon your servant in this thing. Then he said to him, go in peace so he could pardon from him a short distance.

With a light and happy heart, the servants packed up the presents and packed up some dirt and captain Naaman said goodbye and they all started to go back home to Damascus.

Elisha's heart was grateful too as he went back into his house. But someone else had been watching and had been listening to everything that had happened and he didn't have a light and happy heart.

No! In fact, he decided to do something about it. Who was that person and what did he do? You'll have to come back tomorrow.

Boys and girls, wasn't that a wonderful day that the captain Naaman had? Did you notice how concerned he was about praying in the heathen temples?

He wanted to be sure that God would know his thoughts while he was on his knees. What are our thoughts when we kneel to pray?

You know, we don't worship idols, not usually at least, but there are often other things in our minds when we pray.

We can take up space, can distract us, it can make it so that we're not fully thinking about and worshiping God.

We want to have our minds fully committed to him so that when we pray, when we worship, he knows that we're thinking about him and that we love him.

Let's pray.

Lord, help us to keep our minds focused on you, especially as we have our time with you.

As we pray, we just pray that you will help us to think about you and to commit our hearts to you in Jesus' name. Amen.

To train up a child, train up a child in the way he should go.

And when he is old, when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22 verse 6.

To train up a child, train up a child in the way he should go.

And when he is old, when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22 verse 6.

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